"It's going to take the public to come on board with this," Dainelli said. "They have to realize what they want. Postal service is designed to be a service of the people. And if they want the service, they have to speak up and keep it.

"If they don't care about the service, they have to take a look at what they are going to do because businesses are going to diminish."

Businesses, like the public, currently enjoy overnight delivery within a 75-mile radius, a union rep said.

Dainelli noted that the volume of work done by UPS and FedEx is very small compared to what the Postal Service does.

Tom Landis, secretary for the Michiana Coalition for Postal Services, spent 37 years with the Postal Service and is now retired. He wants the public to know this is one of many possible changes.

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Others include having neighborhoods have one mail delivery area with boxes and reducing days of delivery.

Consolidating South Bend's sorting center into Fort Wayne's is merely one of the most egregious proposals, he said.

"What's most egregious is the loss of 35,000 jobs nationwide," he said.

Postal officials have admitted more than 250 post offices could close.

The Postal Service said Tuesday it lost $5.1 billion last year, and that it expects operating revenue to drop to about $64 billion this year.

Tony Flora, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Branch 330, warns that if the Postal Service follows through and closes the South Bend sorting center, service Michiana has been used to for generations would be lost.

"The public needs to stand up here and say our country is not going to go down the pathway and say we have to get rid of our post office now," he said. "We've built the Postal Service up for over 200 years."